After serving briefly as a Habsburg court councillor, Auersperg was sent to The Hague (1641), and later he took part in peace negotiations at Osnabrück, which ultimately ended the Thirty Years’ War with the Peace of Westphalia (1648). After the death of the empire’s chief minister, Maximilian von Trauttmansdorff (1650), Auersperg gradually achieved preeminence, especially after Leopold I became emperor. As chief privy councillor (1665–69) he concluded a secret ... (100 of 158 words)